On Wed, June 4, 2014 13:45, Richard Tenney via Utah-Astronomy wrote:
Ryan,
Thank you for this thoughtful piece. I believe most of us can fully relate to what you've written here. For me personally, I love the contemplation that photons from a distant DSO are ending their million+ year journey on my very own retina, that that is both sobering and delightful.
I was listening to a physics lecture some place (wish I could remember where) in which the lecturer described how time doesn't "progress" for light. So if you were riding light you'd leave your point of origin and arrive at the target instantly. Outside, however, it can take millions of years to make the journey. I'm not very up to speed on the physics part of it, but I thought it was a neat idea. To us the light from a distant galaxy is very old. To the light, it was born and then instantly smashed in to your retina. Something about time dilation... maybe one of the physics experts here can explain it to us. -Ryan